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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] "No," she assured him, "but it's not the world's nicest inn." Quickly she told him about the evening's exploits and the kind of spell she wanted. Dacaro thought a moment. "I think it is time you received some instruction. Perhaps it will be a good way to while away the miles from here on out. You seem determined to practice the art." "Of necessity," she responded, "although I admit it fasci- nates me. I know I'll never be great at it, but it is something unusual that I can do." "Ruddygore explained to you the price of such dabblings? The fact that you are a witch's changeling?" "Something like that. I'm not sure I understand it and I'm certainly not going to let it bother me." "The principle is simple. Only the masters of the art may create magical energies. All else must come from the practi- tioner. The more difficult spells can literally take a lot out of you, energy that must be replenished slowly. In your case, the replenishment is not of flesh and blood but of the nature of faerie. The more energy you expend send from yourself the more faerie will replace it. If you lost blood, your body would eventually replace it with new blood. But if you lose the plasma of magic, it must be replaced from magical sources. I Your sources are attuned to faerie. If you continue, your entire i body will eventually be so replaced. You will be of faerie." JACK L. CHALKER Page 112 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html 161 "Is that necessarily bad?" He considered this. "It depends on how you look at it. The more you are of faerie, the more magic of the minor sort will be instinctive, requiring no training. But you will be subject to the magic of mortals and the rules of faerie. Never having been of faerie, I can not say if this is good, bad, or indifferent. But it is certainly different." "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," she told him. "For now, the protection spell for the rooms." "Simple. You have a good memory. Remember this spell and do it so." He sketched out in her mind a pattern and a rhythmic chant to aid the pattern's symmetry. "Try it. Just a bit. Just in the air here." She concentrated and tried it, going just a little ways. The color of the bands was orange, and they were a little thicker and harder to manage, but not by much. "How's that?" "It will do. Go now. Get some rest. We have a busy day tomorrow." She left him and returned to the inn, where the rest of the Company was still at the table drinking ale. Joe and the portly file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...%201%20-%20The%20River%20of%20t he%20Danc.txt (141 of 234) [1/19/03 4:23:28 PM] file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Dancing%20G ods%201%20-%20The%20River%20of%20the%20Danc.txt Grogha seemed in the best of spirits. After a while, they went upstairs. She first checked the saddlebag and found it undisturbed. That didn't mean that no one had tried, but certainly the spell had worked. After bidding the other three good night, she stood back and worked the protection spell, first on the window and then, from outside, on the door. It looked really pretty, she decided. She and Joe went one door down to their room. From inside this time, she traced the spell once more on door and window. Joe watched her, fascinated, seeing only a chanting woman waving her right hand about, but he knew that something was indeed taking place. She felt a little tired when she finished and sat down on the bed of straw. "I just happened to think of something," Joe said. "Huh?" "We had a lot to drink. What if I have to go to the can?" She smiled and pointed under the window. "See that pot there? That's a chamber pot, as in the old days." He went over, looked at it, and frowned. "Umph. Some privacy! But I suppose if you gotta go you gotta go." 162 THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS She nodded and lay back on the bed. "I really am starting to feel worn out. I think maybe I'll just go right to sleep." He came over and knelt down beside her. "Sure ain't Texas, is it? Or South Philly, either." She smiled. "No, it sure isn't. And I'm glad it isn't. I wouldn't go back for anything now, I think. We have something everybody dreams about at one time or another but almost nobody ever gets, Joe. A new life. A second chance. It's funny. Here we are, in a dirty roadhouse in an ugly foreign country, about to put ourselves into real danger and I've never been happier in my whole life. Never. You understand that?" He nodded. "In a way. But only in a way. Me, I'm still on the road for somebody else, stopping at flea traps and risking my neck for not much. And I got nobody, really, to be doin' it for just like back home. This stuff ain't so glamorous, either, when you bean somebody with a sword and electrocute him or something like that. I got a Page 113 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html feeling that the only thing that's really changed about me is that now I'm gonna get paid for killin' folks instead of haulin' their stuff." She thought about it a moment. "Maybe you're right, Joe. But it's the only life we've got now. Let's play it out. It could be fun, too." He sighed. "I dunno. Maybe maybe you and me will be file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...%201%20-%20The%20River%20of%20t he%20Danc.txt (142 of 234) [1/19/03 4:23:28 PM] file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Dancing%20G ods%201%20-%20The%20River%20of%20the%20Danc.txt a team, huh? We're different, you and me, from any of them. We're from someplace else. Someplace different, if you know what I mean." She leaned over and patted his arm. "I think so. We'll see." She snuffed out the lantern. It was an eerie scene for her after that, with the orange bands of the window and door and the yellow on the saddlebag aglow, yet reflecting not at all the rest of the room. To Joe, of course, it was pitch-darkness. "Marge?" "Yes, Joe?" "I'm just lonesome, is all. I have been for a long, long time. Long before comin' here, I mean." "I know." "Marge?" "Yes, Joe?" "I'm horny, too." JACK L. CHALKER 163 "I figured as much. Not now, Joe. Not for a while. Not between you and me, that is. Let's just be friends for a while, huh? Companions from another world." He sighed once again. "What's the matter? Afraid it will louse us up?" "No, it's not that. Look, Joe, I can't be as strong as you. And this is even more of a man's world than ours is. My only chance to be independent to be free here is through the magic. The place Ruddygore sent me, well, it was sort of like a convent. I joined their order." "You mean you're a nun?" He sounded genuinely shocked. "Think of it that way, if you can. It's not to say that someday I might not bend. When I think me time is right. When I'm ready. But as for now, the longer I stay celibate, the stronger my magic power gets. Once I break it, I can never get any stronger. I just told you what the magic means to me, Joe. So I have to pay the price." He was silent for a minute, then finally said, "You ain't the only one payin' a price." But then he rolled over and was soon snoring. She had no trouble joining him in that endeavor. It was Joe who was up first, shortly after dawn, and he tired rather quickly of just lying there and waiting for her so he could leave. He gently shook her awake. "Hope you don't mind but I'm trapped," he said apolo- getically. "No, I don't mind at all,"^he told him. "In fact, the lack of clocks and wake-up calls is a real pain around here. How come you got up? Trouble sleeping?" "Nope. When you're on the road and time is money, you file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%...%201%20-%20The%20River%20of%20t he%20Danc.txt (143 of 234) [1/19/03 4:23:28 PM] file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20The%20Dancing%20G ods%201%20-%20The%20River%20of%20the%20Danc.txt get so you can mentally set Page 114 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html yourself to wake up at a particular time. It's no big trick just a practical necessity." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |